No Dream Is Too High - Buzz Aldrin Page 0,26
anything to deter you. You may not know everything you need to know, but you know enough to get started. Don’t wait for someone to write complimentary things about you after you are dead and gone. Do your epitaph while you are living!
Nothing is impossible, but you must have a passion for what you want to do and a plan for where you want to go if you ever hope to get there. It was “impossible” when President John F. Kennedy announced in 1961 that the United States was going to land on the Moon before the end of that decade. At the time, we had barely gotten our space program off the ground. But we did it. Nothing is impossible if you believe.
The “impossible” just takes a little longer.
Develop that inner perseverance, that attitude that says, I can do this; I will do this! No matter what the opposition says, I will find a way.
Remember: Can’t never could. No never will. Success comes in “cans.”
• CHAPTER SIX •
MAINTAIN YOUR SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE.
You don’t have to go to the Moon to maintain a sense of wonder in life. You just need to foster an adventurous spirit. I find tremendous pleasure in the “little things,” everywhere I go.
For instance, I prefer to sit by the window in an airplane so I can look out at the marvelous sights. To this day, I am still thrilled when I fly into New York City, and the plane circles around the Statue of Liberty before coming in for a landing. Powerful emotions well within me as I look out the plane’s window at Lady Liberty, and feelings of pride and patriotism surge through me.
I enjoy flying across the United States. In my mid-80s, after orbiting the Earth in Gemini 12 and walking on the Moon during Apollo 11, I’m still amazed as I gaze out a plane window, observing the clouds and the astounding terrain of Earth below as we fly. How many years did it take for the Colorado River to carve out the Grand Canyon? I ponder as I fly over Arizona. What cataclysmic events took place that heaved the majestic Rocky Mountains into place? I’m a scientist and an astronaut, but looking down at creation from an altitude of 37,000 feet, as I zoom across the country in a metal tube, I have to wonder, How did it all happen? It couldn’t have been simply a cosmic accident.
I’m even more fascinated with watching Christina and her husband Alex’s baby Logan developing. I missed those years with my own kids because I was so consumed with work. But now, I observe with awe how little baby Logan responds to various stimuli, amazed at how the neurotransmitters in his young brain are snapping to attention and discovering the world around him. Each day is a new adventure for him, as he looks at life with awe. I hope to always maintain that same sort of childlike fascination with life here on Earth as well as on other celestial bodies.
Although I’ve had some unique experiences in space, I still have an adventurous spirit here on Earth. I’ve traveled “up” to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker ship with former television newscaster Hugh Downs and his wife, Ruth. Hugh had a film crew for the ABC television program 20/20 documenting our trip.
It was freezing cold when we reached the North Pole, but in my mind, I could almost hear Karen Carpenter, one of my all-time favorite female artists, singing, “I’m on top of the world looking down on creation.” We shuttled across the frozen expanse by helicopter to a location where we were served a meal on the ice. Then some of the passengers set up a makeshift baseball diamond on the ice and we played softball at the North Pole. What an experience! A couple of the younger passengers even found a spot where the ice had cleared and they dared to jump in the water for a quick swim—very quick! But not me. I’m adventurous, but I’m not crazy!
I’ve traveled 250,000 miles up to the Moon, and up to the North Pole, and I’ve also plunged down more than 2.4 miles, all the way to the ocean floor in a tiny, yellow, French submersible to view the wreckage of the Titanic. The company that sponsored the trip hoped to raise a section of the ship’s hull and conduct an unprecedented exploration of the bow. Unlike the Beatles’ hypothetical yellow submarine, the